Laika

Overconfidence in their ability to tweak pitchers I guess. They fixed Ray and helped Matz and got cocky? But the decision to scrap Kikuchi's cutter is not that weird. It sucked. Terrible contract though. I hope they are willing to cut him during 2023 if he is pitching anything like this.

This is a silly line of discussion anyway. Romano PROJECTS as a good but not elite reliever. That's all that really matters. He projects better than a few guys on that closer list, but also worse than a lot of non-closing relievers. His decline in stuff and K-BB is having a negative effect on his projections. You will note that the more responsive projection system (THE BAT) gives him slightly worse ERA/FIP/K% projections. Hopefully in 2023 his stuff is back to 2021 levels. He turns 30 in April though, so who knows, that might be wishful thinking.

There is like a 99% chance Sale broke his hand punching another wall, right?

Cal Quantrill and Gavin Lux and Dylan Carlson, all disappointments in their own right, are like the 2nd to 4th best players taken in R1. Will Smith the only standout. Could be an 80 to 90% failure rate in the first round based on your line in the sand. There are three players in the 2nd round better than all the players in the first round! Bo, Reynolds, and Alonso.

The 2016 draft is looking like an all time stinker. Still early for a number of those players but the first round is full of disappointments.

your posts are awful and you should feel terrible

Kikuchi really needs a RH Opener in front of him when the other team is capable of stacking RHB like that... it would probably help a lot to have a RHP even a mediocre/s***** one like Thornton throw the first inning or two.

They are at least AS TALENTED on a player by player basis. They need to play better, of course. Need to have MVP caliber Vlad and Superstar Bo show up, among other things.

7.3% chance Toronto's chance of catching NYY is higher than their chance of missing the playoffs which is like 3.3%

Oops lol

Yeah I really doubt they stretch him out. There won't be time.

Loser talk Toronto is going to win the division! In a week or two Kyle Lewis and Mitch Haniger will collide in the outfield. Haniger's remaining testicle will dislocate from his body and shatter Lewis' patella. Career ending injuries.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/08/reds-planning-to-select-t-j-zeuch.html Red Sox going to have Wincky and Zoinks on their staff

Honestly the M's. This is tempting fate but Toronto is relatively secure in the WC race when you consider projections and strength of schedule. They have a lead, are a better team than all the teams chasing them, and have a fairly easy schedule. Catching the Yankees is possible and should be the goal.

He was a Rule 5 pick who was then given up by the selecting team And he had 1.2 fWAR in 2021 as a reliever and currently has 0.7 fWAR I'd say he is absolutely thriving, relative to his "talent" He is probably pitching through a nagging injury this year though, judging from stuff.

But from a baseball perspective perhaps they just think Jordan Romano thrives in the role and will be the best reliever he can be in a traditional closer role

it is what it is like if they made no trades at all at the deadline they would be crucified by fans even if it was the right call many teams do stuff to do stuff most teams are not the Rays

Believe it or not, MLB teams sometimes make baseball decisions based on the fan/entertainment aspect of things. You can tell from his scoreboard introduction and video show that the Blue Jays have a bit of a marketing push behind Jordan Romano, Canadian Closer.

Should be noted that NYY is taking the same approach rest of year on their rotation. Cole Cortes Montas Taillon - two TJS on resume German - sucks AAA - Clarke Schmidt, Deivi Garcia (sucks), Luis Gil (sucks) Severino - done as starter in 2022? I cannot be convinced that their depth chart is any better than Toronto's. Gausman Manoah Berrios White Stripling Kikuchi Hatch and friends The Montgomery - Bader trade was so weird... Both teams are basically just praying they do not lose a big pitcher. Toronto's SPs have pretty clean injury histories though. I think?

Gabriel's Load

wow it's the same EVERYTHING

This guy kind of has some outfield Raimel Tapia in him. Horrible defensive CF despite 70 speed. I checked and Fangraphs even had this nailed in their 2021 Red Sox list. Has him as a 35/40 defender. So he must have been visibly horrendous in the minors.

From what I've read his raw power is below average

There is zero problem with position player depth. There has not been a problem with it at any point this year. And Tapia starting a bunch of games is not really a problem - all teams have players of that quality starting a big chunk of games at some point. Pitching depth issues this year are a function of bad luck AND the system not producing fruit AND some unexpected underperformances (all the AAA SP depth being completely worthless) AND probably a tough offseason when it comes to attracting free agents because of border s***. I don't think it's fair to slam them. I mean they addressed the bullpen at the 2021 deadline and brought in multiple controllable relievers. They did that again this deadline. In the last year they have acquired Yimi Garcia, David Phelps, Trevor Richards, Adam Cimber, Zach Pop, and Anthony Bass. Literally 6 out of the 8 RP right now are acquisitions over the last calendar year. Also the two rentals Hand (ugh) and Soria last deadline. Traded for Berrios. Signed Gausman. Signed Kikuchi (ugh). Traded for White. Traded for Strip as a forward looking move in 2020 to help for these years. All they do is add, improve, in a more-often-than-not positive way. They are always deliberate and smartly adding pitching and other depth where needed. I don't actually know what you complainers all want. It's like you think this is easy and there aren't 29 other teams, most of which are very competent, fighting them for every available asset. Players like Trevor Richards would have projected very well in the offseason for the record. I mean even right now his xFIP is 3.98; he probably has better projections than most of the RP arms that were considered at the trade deadline. That he has LOOKED like a lost cause over a few dozen innings this year is more noise than signal and a good example of the randomness that can make fans think that teams were fatally flawed from the start when they really weren't.

Yeah people who wanted the Blue Jays to do MORE at the deadline are essentially saying they should have traded guys like Moreno and Tiedemann. They traded Groshans, a recent top 100 prospect consensus, and Frasso, one of the hotter prospects in the system, and none of their trades were overpays vs what the rest of the market did. A month ago the asking prices on some of these relievers would have probably made you faint. Teams were probably asking for Tiedemann for guys like Scott Effross and the conversations just went nowhere.